scorched ☥ application
Out of Character Information
player name: Arden
player livejournal: dancinpenguins
playing here: N/A
where did you find us? Through Adri/Bella
are you 16 years of age or older?: Very much so.
In Character Information
character name: Hitsugaya Toshiro
Fandom: Bleach
Timeline: Post Chapter 423, following the conclusion of the Deicide arc
character's age: It's complicated, however, he's most likely over a hundred years old, using context clues and determining via flashbacks. However, aging works differently in Soul Society, hence why he maintains the appearance of a child after all this time (he physically resembles something like a 10 to 13 year old).
powers, skills, pets and equipment:
Physical
Weapon mastery, Sword: Despite having achieved Bankai, the second released form of Zanpakuto, Hitsugaya rarely even goes so far as to use the first released state, or Shikai form of his weapon, generally fighting with it in its Sealed, unreleased state. This says a lot for his mastery of the weapon, and he knows how to use his smaller size to his advantage in a battle to outmaneuver his opponents.
Shinigami Fortitude: Can survive incredibly powerful attacks and harsh conditions, and continue fighting even when his strength is near-depleted.
Flash step / Shunpo : Incredible speed, due to shinigami training, that allows him to maneuver faster than the human eye can see, to both dodge and deliver attacks. Hitsugaya is considered an expert with this technique.
Hand to hand combat / Hakuda : While Hitsugaya usually defaults to fighting with his sword, he does manage to knock someone out in mid-air with one hit, which seems to imply he has some degree of hand to hand ability. Either way, it was a part of his training, and his physical strength outmatches most normal humans, despite his size.
Spiritual [reiatsu-based]
Immense reiatsu: Hitsugaya's spiritual power has always been impressive and difficult to control, and is linked to his incredibly quick success in the Gotei 13 and ascension to Captain. Battles between Shinigami and other spiritual beings are essentially battles between their spiritual reiatsu, which makes Hitsugaya an incredibly dangerous opponent. His reiatsu itself is ice-based, and actually affects the environment around him, rendering it incredibly cold whenever he is not in control of his power, or whenever he releases his reiatsu to attack. He is, however, able to cloak his reiatsu via a concentrated effort, in order to mask his presence to other shinigami.
Kido: Offensive, defensive, and healing spells used by shinigami that channel their spiritual power to cast. Hitsugaya is adept enough at Kido that he can deliver incredibly high powered spells without even using the incantation, representing a mastery of the technique. These spells can be used to bind, defend, shield, track, attack, seal, destroy, and more.
Other
Prodigy: It is pointed out multiple times in canon that Hitsugaya is a naturally gifted shinigami, whose talents came remarkably easily to him. He's also a prodigy in terms of pure intelligence, which means he has an incredibly sharp mind, catches on to things quickly, and is skilled at making quick tactical decisions. He graduated from Shinigami Academy in only one year, and acquired the highest scores of his entire class, in both written and performance based assessments. He's compared to the natural brilliance of Ichimaru Gin, who was also a child prodigy, and even some of the oldest and most powerful captains believe that given another century or so, Hitsugaya could easily garner more power than they have, at the rate he is progressing. His intelligent mind allows him to not only make a great tactical commander and battle strategist, as well as giving him an intuition into people's motivations that often can give him an edge when people attempt to deceive him (often, but not always, thanks Aizen, you bitch).
Zanpakuto [weapon/skills]
Hitsugaya's weapon, or Zanpakuto, is an extension of his spirtiual self, and an entity all on its own, at the same time. It is called Hyorinmaru (or "Ice Ring"), which, when in its sealed, or 'unreleased' form, simply looks like a katana whose only remarkable feature is its hilt, a bronze-colored star with four points. It's actually longer than he is tall, so he has to wear it strapped to his back. When he draws the weapon, the sheath dissolves temporarily.
Hyornimaru is the strongest ice-based Zanpakuto, and Hitsugaya's release-form attacks use water and ice, as well as basic weather control.
Shikai (or First release) : When released to shikai, Hyornimaru lengthens even further, as well as adding a crescent shaped blade and chain, which can extend during battle. With his sword in this state, he can release a torrent of ice from his blade driven by spirit power, which takes the form of a gigantic dragon made of ice. He can create multiple dragons simultaneously, and each one freezes anything it comes into contact with. If his blade slices the ground, a wave of ice that also freezes his enemies hurtles towards them. The chain, as well, freezes what it touches.
Releasing his shikai in Soul Society is so intense that it creates huge changes in the weather. Hitsugaya can control the weather with his reiatsu, through manipulating the water in the atmosphere. He uses this ability in Shikai state more than in Bankai, because his Bankai involves so much spiritual power, that he's worried affecting the weather will result in catastrophic changes of lethal proportions, that he might be unable to control.
Bankai (or final release): His Bankai is called Daiguren Hyornimaru ("Grand Crimson Lotus Ice Ring"), which encases his arms and shoulders in ice, as well as forming wings and a tail, and adding a dragon like claw to his left arm and feet. Occasionally flowers of ice appear behind him when he fights in this form, and the 'petals' melt during the duration of the battle.
Daiguren Hyornimaru's techniques
Bankai regeneration: When damaged, his Bankai can use water from the air to heal itself.
Ice clone: Can create a lifelike clone of himself out of ice to act as an illusion in battle.
Shield of Ice Wings: A shield.... made of his ice wings. Not a hard concept to grasp.
Ryusenka: Ice that encases an opponent when Hitsugaya stabs them. It freezes them, and can be shattered, taking the enemy with it.
Sennen Hyoro: Creates a large number of ice pillar around him and his enemy, which then crush inward. Requires the enemy to be very distracted to set up.
Hyoten Hyakkaso: A large hole opens up in the clouds, through which snow falls onto the opponent. Wherever the snow contacts them, ice flowers grow, until they're covered in a pillar of ice. 100 ice petals fall, at which point the trapped enemy dies with them.
Guncho Tsurara: Can fire a bunch of ice daggers at his opponent by swinging his Zanpakuto in an arc
Hyoryu Senbi: Creates a crescent of ice with a swing of his blade.
Zekku: Sends said crescent whizzing through the air
canon history: Laid out quite nicely here.
personality: Blame it on being over a century old and one of the most powerful beings in Soul Society and yet still being mistaken for an elementary student, or showered with candy and kid stuff, but Hitsugaya has forged a lot of his personality around being as mature as possible, so as to combat being judged by his appearance. Considering that he's also the youngest to ever attain Captain status, and that he achieved it so quickly and easily, he also maintains a very dedicated and disciplined commitment to constantly proving himself worthy of his title. He takes it as a measure of pride, and is quick to annoyance when others don't address him properly as "Captain", just as his temper flares up when he's mistaken for a child. He's worked incredibly hard to reach his position, and he doesn't suffer people treating him with contempt or flippancy.
Generally able to think rationally and logically, Hitsugaya nevertheless is far from emotionless, however 'cold' his projected personality may be. It isn't just insults to his pride that stir up his ire - he also connects deeply to those who earn his long lasting loyalty, and he'll do just about anything to protect them. This is most notable in his sentiments towards his childhood friend, Hinamori, but he also exhibits it to a lesser degree towards, for example, his vice-captain Matsumoto. To Hitsugaya, the value of a shinigami is in their ability to protect others, and his motivations for attaining more power are purely so that he might be able to better protect those he cares about. Following the debacle with Aizen, he only feels more strongly about this, and guilts himself constantly about not having been strong enough to prevent what occurred. Those who harm the people he cares about the most can bring out his incredibly dangerous temper - he himself admits that anyone who swings a blade in hatred isn't worthy of being considered a captain, but that when he faced up against Aizen, that was exactly what he felt. He was willing to be stripped of the title he valued so dearly if it meant he could kill him - even while he blurred the lines between justice and vengeance a little too far.
It's no coincidence that the manifestation of his spiritual power is ice-based, however, no matter how hot his temper may burn in moments of extremity. He's practically defined by his cool head and ability to deal with anything thrown at him without losing his calm. He can be accused of being pessimistic, grumpy, a buzzkill, uptight, cold hearted, or occasionally even mean by Matsumoto others, but while there's probably a grain in truth in all of those, he's honestly kind and thoughtful at heart, incredibly reliable, and much more of a realist than a pessimist. He tries to assess situations from a detached point of view (where they don't involve extreme danger to those he cares the most about at least...) and he shows an interest in helping others grow to their own potential. He's never boastful about his incredible abilities, and the fact that he works so hard at them suggests a true sense of natural humility, despite the fact that he's so defensive about his pride.
It's remarked by others that Hitsugaya is perhaps the reincarnation of a 'heavenly guardian' who comes around every few centuries. Given his focus on protecting others, his incredible prowess, the fact that he doesn't seem to age up at all from his childlike state, and his personality, this doesn't seem like merely a poetical stretch of the imagination and seems likely to be true. He also has had dreams about dying on the plain of ice, which only seems to reinforce this.
Hitsugaya is often characterized by a succinctness of speech, due to the fact that he doesn't like drawing excessive amounts of attention to himself, and doesn't feel the need to show off his intelligence. He'd rather speak through actions and results, considering that they're more valuable anyways. Plus, talking too much wastes time!!111, or so he likes to assert, anyways. Despite not saying much all the time, he still likes to vocally complain about Matsumoto, who admittedly, makes his life really hard.
He's also attracted to most things cold, and has an aversion to warm weather, etc. He really really hates the beach.
why do you feel this character would be appropriate to the setting? Not only is Hitsugaya a shinigami, or Soul Reaper, whose job regularly involves facing off against horrendous monsters called Hollows, that would make normal people wet themselves if they could see them, but he's also a Captain class shinigami. In the Bleach world, this can be translated to read as "One Badass Motherfucker". They're the 13 division leaders chosen because of their power, tactical abilities, and/or leadership qualities, and (except for one case), they've all unlocked the ultimate stage of their Zanpakuto, which makes them instantly five to ten times stronger than shinigami who haven't achieved bankai. Hitsugaya himself is the youngest shinigami to be named Captain in the entire history of Soul Society.
In other words, he can handle what gets thrown at him.
Writing Samples
Network Post Sample:
Dear Mun sample #1 | here
Dear Mun sample #2 | here
Musebox sample | here
Third Person Sample:
A return to some semblance of normalcy - to getting something accomplished, and moving forward - seemed a better idea to Hitsugaya than trying to act as if stopping Aizen had been enough to earn them all some time off. Of course, his coping mechanisms might have left a little to be desired, considering that amping up the insane amount of time he'd already poured into training before all this left him hardly enough to remember eating or sleeping. He knew Matsumoto wanted to say something about it, but wisely, for once, managed to hold her tongue. He imagined that was probably because she was dealing with enough on her own. Perhaps he should have said something to her about it, but as much as he knew she'd probably value the effort, he was certain any attempts at comfort he made would fall short. It was better to let her deal with it on her own terms. It was better if they all handled it that way.
It wasn't surprising, therefore, that he was the first one to step through the open Senkaimon that would lead them into the Human World, eager to sharpen his skills in actual combat as soon as the opportunity presented itself. The end of Aizen's reign of terror didn't put an end to their regular duties: there were still Hollows to combat, souls to set free. Work to be done.
Of course, he thought to himself with the slightest of scowls as he stepped through, it wasn't as if would probably have much cause to use his shikai or bankai against a simple Hollow - and he needed to be able to control those most powerful aspects of himself if ever meant to reach his full potential.
And there was no doubt in his mind that if there was one thing he must focus on now, it was precisely that. How else could he ever hope to make up to Hinamori for what he'd done...
He was concentrating so singularly on that thought that it surprised him to realize no one was behind him. It surprised him even more when another door opened in front of him and he felt himself compelled forward, as if being dragged forward by some kind of force, out into the world beyond. A world that felt different than the human world ever did.
He sensed the Mist before it even enveloped him - sensed the power there, and his eyes widened in shock and an unquiet sense of sudden dread that chilled him to the very core. He reached back for his zanpakuto, feeling his hand wrap around the familiar hilt, but it was too late. He was dragged out into the midst of the dense fog, that seemed to fill his vision, cloud his senses, infiltrate his lungs like a thing tangible. He managed only a brief shout before his entire body seemed to be wracked with painful contortions that brought spots before his eyes.
Moments later, his eyes rolled back in his head, his hand falling slack to his side. He had time for one thought, crystal clear even amongst the veil settling in over his mind:
Still not... strong enough.
Anything else? Given that Shinigami are actually... invisible to humans most of the time unless inhabiting a gigai, or fake body, I'm having the mist change him so that his spiritual essence takes a real physical form, to get around how incredibly confusing that could be. :)